Gaming Civilization 5 Hands-on Preview

Joe straps on his tactical hat, which has spikes and everything, to play Civ 5.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2010/08/08/civilization-5-hands-on-preview/1

 

My PC is getting upgraded to play this, that says a lot for me.

This is going to be awesome, everything so far I've read that has been added sounds perfect.

 

this is on my kill-to-get list.

 

There is something behind people saying Civ II is the best in terms of gameplay, but I have gotten more enjoyment out of each game in turn so am very excited over this. We need more Sid's and less Bobby Kotick's.

 

As a side note. To anyone who doesn't realise, Civilisation on the iphone/touch is free this weekend.
Just a heads up

 

..... thats probably the best analogy ive heard this week ;p

 

WANT!

 

The anal-ogy is brilliant.

This game is so far ahead of SC2 on my upgrade-to-play list it's unbelievable.

 

Balancing issues??

Nice preview.

I especially liked the fact the differences between Civ 4 and 5 were pointed out. This is the main thing about any Civ release in my opinion.

Although the issue raised about potential balancing issues; "Unfortunately though, the balancing is occasionally schizophrenic and there are a few instances where Firaxis’ tweaks don’t quite line up with each other. No stacking? Fine. Units take longer to make? Fine. Cities can now bombard nearby units? Um…" I'm not sure is a good or bad thing until I try it out.

It could well be that, for seasoned players at least, this works out to add a little more realism and depth to the whole attacking process. I mean it's not as though in real life a defending city wouldn't be prepared to defend itself and exploit that advantage.

This addition along with the denied unit stacking just seem like exactly what I'd expect from Civ's devs; constant development of the game in the right direction, more realism and depth. Each release has added things in this manner and I think there hasn't been a bad addition yet. For example, the addition of the religious development tree as a new dimension to bolster political and cultural goals. The changes so far just seem logical to me and I can't wait to get stuck in.

 

I'm so glad unit stacking is gone. Not only did it totally reduce combat to a game of rock/paper/scissors, it also made the game a farce as you put 300 battleships on the same tile and instantly killed an entire city each turn. I know that Civilization is much more a logistics and economics game, but it was always frustrating to know that you often had no recourse in a situation unless you had a big enough economy to pump out the 50,000 units necessary to win a war.

 

This is a poor preview.

Every new idea mentioned is then followed with a very hesitant and negative leaning comment. This game isn't walking a fine line at all. It's evolving and becoming something more than the same redundant games we've seen.
All of these changes are a refreshment and should make any Civ V (yes V, because there's nothing wrong with that...who are you?) very excited in the anticipation of developing all new strategies and once again challenging our minds. It's good to see companies move forward and not lean on old timers to be the only ones supporting their games.
I'm thrilled about the potential of this game. I've mildly played all Civ 1-4 games, and ended up leaving them early. I believe this one will finally hook me like I'm hoping. I'm on a tight budget and passing up Starcraft 2 for this, and I loved Starcraft. I just really believe I will be getting something new and refreshing with this game.
So please, while the preview is very much an impression and opinion. There was way too much negativity repeated in this to take it seriously at all. There are much better back and forth, pro and con previews of this out there.

 

:rollseyes: That was tongue in cheek. Was hoping the underlying irony of using the American spelling but rejecting the Roman numbers in favour of Anglo symbols would be self-evident.

 

I would remind oint that it's not a review, just a glimpse of what's to come. Cheers Bit-Tech for your honest appraisal. I'm sick and tired of so many other supposed 'review' sites who just mimic the marketing bs.

While my friends were playing Doom and Comanche I was into Civ I, and I played it to death. For some reason I never got into Civ II, but I still reckon Civ III is the best of the franchise. Civ III was, technically, a big leap from Civ II, and they got the strategy and gameplay just right. I loved the Japanese add-on with unique units. I went out and bought Civ IV as soon as it came out and, to be honest, it never really grabbed me. I dunno, too complex maybe? By far the most engrossing part of Civ are the initial stages where you're building your empire, striving to build the Pyramids, sending settlers out to find the the next fertile, resource rich valley, and grabbing as much land possible for future expansion.

For some reason I get bored in the latter part of the game, and don't usually play through to the space race. That they've dropped religion for the fifth iteration is fine with me, I found it annoying.

 

All of the changes I've heard about I heartily approve of except some people have said you can't name your Capital city what you want any more which is a shame but what I really want Fireaxis to do with this new system is release Alpha Centauri II.

 

My first sentence says preview. I'm aware.
I'm not disagreeing the previewer isn't being honest, but there's a lot of: Here is the new change/I'm not really thrilled about it.

 

That sucks, I didn't know about that. I was looking forward to this game adding lots of interesting new things, not taking things away! I can understand why you thought it was annoying, but for a game called Civilization, it really needed to have something included about religion. I would have liked to see atheism develop aswell, it would fit well with the Space Age!

 

The huge problem with me was Civilization 4 to this day basically states if you don't found all religions as soon as possible you're screwed over by those who do culturally, economically, and logistically.

 

Yeah it definitely needs a lot of refining and tweaking or even an utter overhaul, but I think it needs to be a part of the game, given its scope and subject.

 

i really hate these games

 

Insightful!